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Looking for a good book? Then look no further! Welcome to the Book Reviews blog for the River Forest Public Library.  Who better to recommend some good reads than an entire staff of librarians?  Look on this blog to see what our staff is reading each month.  We have also recently switched to a new, easy to read layout and are adding more content to each post.  Now, with each staff pick we will be supplying three fiction and three nonfiction read-a-likes, so you will never run out of new books to read!  But the fun doesn’t stop there–we will also be making weekly posts on current trends (or hidden gems) in the book industry.

We also know that we can’t read everything all the time, so we would love to have as many patron recommendations as possible! Simply fill out the form on the right-hand side of the screen and you can be featured on our blog as well. Happy reading!

Anna’s June Recommendation

Saga Vol. 1. is a graphic novel written by Brian Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples
sagaIt’s a visually stunning work that hearkens back to the epic conflicts of Star Wars, but the main characters are not trying to defeat a wicked Empire, they are instead trying to get their new family out of the way of a never-ending, galaxy-wide war. Despite its designation as a ‘comic’ and its seemingly sentimental storyline, this work is intended for mature audiences–it contains serious issues that correspond with wartime in a callous world.
io9.com‘s review:  ”Since debuting in March 2012, Saga has quickly become one of our favorite new comics. Even though this series is filthy with magic, cybernetics, and galactic political intrigue, it’s a family drama at its pith.
         The comic follows Alana and Marko, an alien couple who find love during wartime. The problem is, they’re on opposite sides of an interplanetary war and must defect with their infant daughter Hazel in tow. The new parents are soon on the lam from such malefactors as Prince Robot IV and an enigmatic soldier of fortune known as The Will, and much hilarity and horror ensues.”

Blaise’s June Recommendation

Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl

tender at the boneIf you are a fan of memoirs, you should read this book.  Reichl is funny and thoughtful as she writes about how she came to love food and cooking and those who shaped her life.  A well-known food writer, Reichl has been restaurant critic for both the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, as well as editor in chief of Gourmet Magazine.  Tender at the Bone is her first memoir, she has published 3 additional titles, the most recent coming out in 2009.  You can find out more about Ruth at 
http://www.ruthreichl.com/
.  Don’t read Tender at the Bone on an empty stomach though because it will make you hungry…although recipes are included!

Three Similar Reads:

French Lessons by Peter Mayle

My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss

Julie an Julia by Julie Powell

Weekly Spotlight On…. Fairytale Retellings

We all grew up reading the Hans Christian Anderson and the Grimm Brothers stories. These types of traditional fairytale stories have so many fun retellings for adults. I thought I would share a few so you can explore the fantastical side of literature, or maybe just get in touch with your childhood roots.

confessions

Maybe you’ve already heard of Gregory Maguire’s retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,  Wicked, which was then also developed into the Broadway musical by the same name. Maguire has also profiled Cinderella’s ugly stepsister in Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.   And if you enjoy Snow White, check out the retelling by Maguire set in a corrupt Italy, Mirror Mirror.

eyre affair

Perhaps you’ve stumbled across Jasper Fforde’s novels like The Eyre Affair, in which Jane Eyre the literary character is kidnapped from an alternate London that values literary characters very highly and Thursday Next, a detective, must get to the bottom of it.

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Here are some more of my suggestions for new twists on familiar favorites. Enjoy and happy reading!

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

the magicians“Harry Potter discovers Narnia is real in this derivative fantasy thriller from Time book critic Grossman (Codex ). Quentin Coldwater, a Brooklyn high school student devoted to a children’s series set in the Narnia-like world of Fillory, is leading an aimless existence until he’s tapped to enter a mysterious portal that leads to Brakebills College, an exclusive academy where he’s taught magic. Coldwater, whose special gifts enable him to skip grades, finds his family’s world “mundane and domestic” when he returns home for vacation. He loses his innocence after a prank unintentionally allows a powerful evil force known only as the Beast to enter the college and wreak havoc. Eventually, Coldwater’s powers are put to the test when he learns that Fillory is a real place and how he can journey there. Genre fans will easily pick up the many nods to J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, not to mention J.R.R. Tolkien in the climactic battle between the bad guy and a magician.” – Publisher’s Weekly.

Check out the sequel, The Magician King

Splintered by Anita Howard

splintered“YA authors have used fairy tales and fantasy as a backdrop for contemporary stories for decades, and first-time author Howard is no exception. Relying on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland as the infrastructure, as well as Tim Burton’s fantastical movie landscapes for inspiration, Howard crafts a teenage skater girl, Alyssa Gardner, who feels compelled to throw herself down the rabbit hole in an attempt to cure her mother’s madness and quiet the ever-increasing chatter in her own head. But Alyssa does not make this journey alone. Childhood friend Jeb enters Wonderland with her, a constant grounding to the real world as they encounter Morpheus (who sports a hookah), Rabid White, Chessie, the Red and Ivory Queens, and other iterations of Carroll’s familiar characters. It’s a deft, complex metamorphosis of this children’s fantasy made more enticing by competing romantic interests, a psychedelic setting, and more mad violence than its original. With one test after another that she must pass, Alyssa soon learns that the only person she can rely on is herself.” – Booklist Review

In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente

in the nights garden“A tale of revenge, magic and family. Valente’s publisher compares this book to Arabian Nights, and that comparison is hardly hyperbole. An exotic and unnamed young lady with tattoos around her eyelids has been exiled to the garden of a palace, existing on the scraps and fruits left to her by the rest of the court, who shun her for her mysteriousness. But one unnamed boy is brave enough to talk to her, and she begins to tell him a fairy tale about a young Prince who kills a goose. Only the day is finished before the story is done, and the unnamed boy must return to hear the rest of the tale. From this story emerges another, and then another, and it’s soon revealed that the goose is really the Prince’s sister, and the old woman who owns the goose his mother, and before long, the Prince begins a quest to save his sister’s life. As time progresses, the young boy risks the antipathy of the rest of the court to continue listening to this interweaving story of magic, adventure, quests and murders, handed down through generations of women. A work of beautifully relayed, interlinked fairy tales.” – Publisher’s Weekly

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

american gods“In his latest novel, Gaiman (Neverwhere) explores the vast and bloody landscape of myths and legends where the gods of yore and the neoteric gods of now conflict in modern-day America. The antihero, a man of unusually acute intellect through whose eyes we witness the behind-the-scenes dynamics of human religion and faith, is a convict called Shadow. He is flung into the midst of a supernatural fray of gods such as Odin, Anansi, Loki One-Eye, Thor, and a multitude of other ancient divinities as they struggle for survival in an America beset by trends, fads, and constant upheaval an environment not good for gods. They are joined in this struggle by such contemporary deities as the geek-boy god Internet and the goddess Media.” – Library Journal

Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy

tales from tolkien“The 21 stories and one verse play that editor Anderson presents are fantasies that influenced, or may have influenced, J. R. R. Tolkien, or that demonstrate Tolkienesque characteristics contemporary with his development of them. Definitely influential is George Macdonald’s “The Golden Key” (1867), which Tolkien admired and from which, along with other Macdonald stories, he learned to make fantasy “a vehicle of Mystery” (that by mystery Tolkien meant Christian truth Anderson doesn’t say). Possibly influential is Kenneth Morris’ 1915 treatment of Viking religion, “The Regent of the North” (although Tolkien seems not to have known of Morris). Showing parallel development is “The Story of Alwina,” a mock-historical chronicling, a la Tolkien’s Silmarillion, of a nonexistent land that Austin Tappan Wright (1883-1931) left to be published as late as 1981 (in 1957 Tolkien said he had never heard of Wright). Besides Macdonald, the better-known writers represented include E. Nesbit, H. Rider Haggard, L. Frank Baum, and John Buchan. In all, a very good gathering of early, distinctively modern fantasy fiction.” – Booklist

Mary Ann’s June Recommendation

Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

lady audley's secretThis “sensation novel” was published in 1862.  I first heard of it from a Newberry Library seminar called Beach Reading for Victorians.  The notes explain that “sensation novels… were works of suspense, scandal, and sex that inherited gothic conventions and influenced detective fiction.”  Wilkie Collins worked in the genre.

Lady Audley’s Secret was riveting and suspenseful.

I downloaded the novel  from iBooks for free.  Many older books are available for free downloading fromiBooks, Kindle, and an app called Free Books – 23,469 classics to go.

This is the first book I read on an ereader.  I loved being able to instantly have a word defined, or linking to a short explanation of a reference such as “Boer War. “ Particularly handy in a mystery novel, you can search for a detail that you recall from early in the book, and want to reread because you realize its relevance to later plot developments.

3 Similar Reads 

The Odd Woman by George Gissing

East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood

Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

 

 

Sue’s June Recommendation

The Bartender’s Tale by Ivan Doig

Book Review The bartender's Tale“Dorothy suggested Ivan Doig, who has been writing novels set in the west for 25 years.  I was intrigued by the title of his 11th novel, so I brought it home.  The story is set in the fictional Gros Ventre, Montana during the summer of 1960 and the narrator is 12 year old Rusty Harry, son of the owner of the local watering hole, The Medicine Shoppe.   Doig is a lyrical writer and I am thoroughly enjoying this coming-of-age novel–that just happens to be set in the west. It is not a story of the bartender, but of the strong bonds of love between a father and son.  It’s slow, but intimate pace, reminds me a lot of my favorite writer, Wallace Stegner,  and I cannot wait to pick it up again tonight.”

3 Similar Reads 

We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg

Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres

Work Song by Ivan Doig

 

 

Weekly Spotlight on. . . Good Summer Chick-Lit Reads

Do you have a list of good books to read yet for the summer? A good e-book for the plane on the way to summer vacation? A good book while laying out in the sun with some lemonade? That “lazy days of summer” feel often brings the need to read, and sometimes we just like to read something light and fun. That’s where chick-lit comes in.

First of all, what is chick-lit? “Chick” refers to a woman, and “lit” is just an abbreviation of literature. Wikipedia defines chick-lit as “genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly.” Chick lit can deal with anything from relationships, to family, to loss, to career, but it always features a female character.  Numerous sources point to the book The Diary of Bridget Jones by Helen Fielding as one of the first chick-lit novels, and this type of book became very popular starting in the 1990’s. 

Well-Known Must Read Chick Lit Novels:

(For those that just need a good place to get started!)

The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Recent and Upcoming Releases:

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella – Release Date: April 23, 2013

wedding night“Kinsella’s latest romantic romp revolves around two sisters with very different notions about love. Impulsive Lottie is expecting her boyfriend, Richard, to propose to her; she’s floored when he instead suggests a vacation using his frequent-flier miles. When Richard balks at the idea of marriage, Lottie breaks up with him. She runs straight into the arms of an old flame, Ben, with whom she spent a magical summer at the age of 18 on the island of Ikonos. Ben is more than ready to rekindle their relationship and walk down the aisle with her. When Lottie’s practical older sister, Fliss, gets wind of her plan to marry Ben, Fliss is determined to stop the nuptials. Ben’s coworker Lorcan seems equally opposed to the wedding, and Fliss thinks they’re set, until Lottie and Ben have a hasty ceremony and jet to Ikonos. Fliss decides she has to sabotage the honeymoon in the hopes of getting Lottie to see that she’s making a huge mistake. There’s plenty of silly fun to be had in this charming comedy of errors.” – Booklist

 All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue – Release date May 21, 2013

all the summer girls“In Philadelphia, good girl Kate is dumped by her fiance the day she learns she is pregnant with his child. In New York City, beautiful stay-at-home mom Vanessa finds herself obsessively searching the Internet for news of an old flame. And in San Francisco, Dani, an aspiring writer who can’t seem to put down a book—or a cocktail—long enough to open her laptop, has just been fired . . . again.

In an effort to regroup, Kate, Vanessa, and Dani retreat to the New Jersey beach town where they once spent their summers. Emboldened by the seductive cadences of the shore, the women begin to realize just how much their lives, and friendships, have been shaped by the choices they made one fateful night on the beach eight years earlier—and the secrets that now threaten to surface.” – Publisher

Wallflower in Bloom: A Novel  by Claire Cook  - Release date: May 21, 2013

wallflower in bloom“Deirdre Griffin has a great life; it’s just not her own. She’s the around-the-clock personal assistant to her charismatic, high-maintenance, New Age guru brother, Tag. As the family wallflower, her only worth seems to be as gatekeeper to Tag at his New England seaside compound.

Then Deirdre’s sometime boyfriend informs her that he is marrying another woman, who just happens to be having the baby he told Deirdre he never wanted. While drowning her sorrows in Tag’s expensive vodka, Deirdre decides to use his massive online following to get herself voted on as a last-minute Dancing with the Stars replacement. It’ll get her back in shape, mentally and physically. It might even get her a life of her own. Deirdre’s fifteen minutes of fame have begun.” – Publisher

Ladies’ Night by Mary K Andrews – release date: June 4, 2013

ladies' night“When Ben cheats on her, Grace drives his car into the swimming pool. Now she is living above her mother’s Florida bar, the Sandbox, and attending a court-assigned therapy group. But instead of therapy, Grace and the other women end up at “Ladies Night” at the Sandbox, discussing the therapist who seems to have her own problems. Even as Grace finds a little house to fix up, and a man with his own marriage problems, she can’t escape the mess she left behind. Set on Florida’s Gulf Coast, featuring sunsets and walks by the water, Andrews’s latest beach read (after Spring Fever ) will have great appeal for readers who enjoy stories of women rebuilding their lives, with the support of other women. Add in a dog, a sweet little boy, hilarious stories of women getting revenge, and romance, and it’s a vacation escape.” – Library Journal

The Time Between by Karen White – Release Date: June 4th, 2013

the time between“Fourteen years after an accident left her sister Eve paralyzed and herself guilt-ridden, Eleanor Murray struggles to atone–not only for the accident, but also for falling in love with her brother-in-law, Glen. The accident fractured the family, dashing Eve’s future as a beauty pageant contestant. And after their father dies, Eleanor’s dreams of playing piano at Juilliard dissolve. Their mother holds Eleanor responsible for keeping together the family she broke apart. Eve knows she should forgive Eleanor, but she can’t quite let go of her anger. Glen, too, is torn between his commitment to Eve and his attraction to Eleanor. Balancing her work at a law office with caring for her mother, sister and brother-in-law, Eleanor too often finds that neither time nor money will stretch far enough. So she arrives late or leaves early, grateful that her boss, Finn Beaufain–the handsome, gray-eyed, divorced father of an adorable yet fragile daughter–tolerates her erratic schedule. She gets dinner on the table, bathes her sister, placates her arthritic mother and occasionally slips on a slinky red dress to play piano at a local dive, hoping someone might offer her solace in his unfamiliar arms. Finding her at the bar one night, Finn gives her a chance: a chance to recover her lost self and perhaps a chance at love. Finn gives her a job caring for his aunt Helena on Edisto Island, where Eleanor grew up.” – Publisher

Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger – Release date: June 4, 2013

Sequel to Devil Wears Prada

revenge wears prada“Almost a decade has passed since Andy Sachs quit the job “a million girls would die for” working for Miranda Priestly at Runway magazine–a dream that turned out to be a nightmare. Andy and Emily, her former nemesis and co-assistant, have since joined forces to start a high-end bridal magazine. The Plunge has quickly become required reading for the young and stylish. Now they get to call all the shots: Andy writes and travels to her hearts content; Emily plans parties and secures advertising like a seasoned pro. Even better, Andy has met the love of her life. Max Harrison, scion of a storied media family, is confident, successful, and drop-dead gorgeous. Their wedding will be splashed across all the society pages as their friends and family gather to toast the glowing couple. Andy Sachs is on top of the world. But karma’s a bitch. The morning of her wedding, Andy cant shake the past. And when she discovers a secret letter with crushing implications, her wedding-day jitters turn to cold dread. Andy realizes that nothing–not her husband, nor her beloved career–is as it seems. She never suspected that her efforts to build a bright new life would lead her back to the darkness she barely escaped ten years ago–and directly into the path of the devil herself. . .” – Publisher

Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand  - Release Date: June 25, 2013

beautiful day“The Carmichaels and the Grahams have gathered on Nantucket for a wedding. Plans are being made according to the wishes of the bride’s late mother, who left behind The Notebook: specific instructions for every detail of her youngest daughter’s future nuptials. Everything should be falling into place for the beautiful event–but in reality, things are far from perfect.

While the couple-to-be are quite happy, their loved ones find their own lives crumbling. In the days leading up to the wedding, love will be questioned, scandals will arise, and hearts will be broken and healed. Elin Hilderbrand takes readers on a touching journey in BEAUTIFUL DAY–into the heart of marriage, what it means to be faithful, and how we choose to honor our commitments.’ – Publisher

Victoria’s May Recommendation #2

Divergent by Veronica Roth

divergentVictoria shares: “I LOVED it. It’s the next Hunger Games. I couldn’t put it down.”

Summary: In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Filming for the book adaptation of this has already started in Chicago, with a release date planned for Spring 2014. Make sure to read this book before then!

3 similar reads:

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Variant by Robison Wells

Enclave by Ann Aguirre